Tom Petty and George Harrison have been such shut associates that they thought-about one another household. Regardless of their valued friendship, although, there have been some issues that they didn’t share with one another. Petty was navigating his manner via marital issues along with his spouse of a few years throughout their friendship. He defined that he not often talked to Harrison about it.
The Heartbreakers frontman initially ran away from his marriage ceremony
Petty married his first spouse, Jane Benyo, earlier than leaving Florida to pursue music in Los Angeles. They deliberate to transfer collectively, however Benyo needed to get married first.
“We’d been going out for a while, didn’t officially live together, but I spent a lot of time at her apartment,” Petty mentioned within the e-book Petty: The Biography by Warren Zanes. “She shared a place with Jim Lenahan’s girlfriend, Alice, who would later become his wife. And we got along good, but she was adamant that we get married before we leave.”
Petty agreed, however he acquired chilly ft simply forward of the marriage.
“I didn’t want to do it,” he mentioned. “I was very vocal about it, too. On the first trip to the church, I jumped out of the car and tried to run away. Then my mother called me and said she wanted me to come over to the house. I did, and she said, ‘Listen, for my sake, please get married before you go out there. It’s the right thing to do.’”
In the end, the 2 married in 1974.
Tom Petty saved his marital issues a secret from George Harrison
By the Nineties, the standard of Petty’s marriage was declining. Benyo’s psychological well being and habit had worsened, straining their relationship. For probably the most half, although, he saved all the main points non-public.
“I didn’t discuss it with anyone,” Petty mentioned, “so no one knew.”
When Petty moved out of the house he shared with Benyo, he shocked many, together with Harrison. The previous Beatle and his spouse Olivia had come to consider Petty and Benyo as household.
“I didn’t talk to him much about that,” Petty defined. “And then, when I moved out, he called me up and said, ‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing here?’ I said, ‘Yes, I do. You don’t know anything about what I’ve been through here. I have to do this.’”
Harrison mentioned that he needed to proceed his relationship with Benyo.
“He said, ‘Well, I’ve come around to really liking Jane.’ After we split up, he went to see her a few times, sent her some letters and stuff,” Petty mentioned. “But he didn’t know.”
Olivia Harrison mentioned Petty made it appear to be issues have been OK within the marriage.
“I didn’t realize how difficult it would have been in that marriage,” she mentioned. “I think that Tom did try to keep his family together and did a good job making it seem like it was all working.”
Tom Petty tremendously valued George Harrison’s friendship
Although he didn’t discuss to Harrison about his marriage, Petty mentioned his friendship with the former Beatle was therapeutic.
“I think I needed a friend really badly,” Petty mentioned. “My friendship with the band was a different kind of friendship. And it was frayed. I’d become very lonely. George came along, and we got so close; it was like we had known each other in some other life or something. We were pals within minutes of meeting each other.”
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